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The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts by [Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien]

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Shane Parrish

The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts Kindle Edition

by Shane Parrish (Author), Rhiannon Beaubien (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

2,962 ratings

Book 1 of 3: The Great Mental Models

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**Wall Street Journal National Best Seller**The old saying goes, "To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail." But anyone who has done any kind of project knows a hammer often isn't enough. The more tools you have at your disposal, the more likely you'll use the right tool for the job — and get it done right.The same is true when it comes to your thinking. The quality of your outcomes depends on the mental models in your head. And most people are going through life with little more than a hammer.Until now.The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts is the first book in The Great Mental Models series designed to upgrade your thinking with the best, most useful and powerful tools so you always have the right one on hand. This volume details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making, productivity, and how clearly you see the world. You will discover what forces govern the universe and how to focus your efforts so you can harness them to your advantage, rather than fight with them or worse yet— ignore them.Upgrade your mental toolbox and get the first volume today!Here's what people have to say about the book. "I'm really glad this exists in the world and I can see that I will be recommending it often." — Matt Mullenweg, founder and CEO of Automattic

ISBN-10

9781999449018
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

October 9, 2019
Book 1 of 3

The Great Mental Models
Language

English
File size

5651 KB
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Total Price: $21.81

Rhiannon Beaubien
409
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1 offer from $9.10
Shane Parrish
952
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1 offer from $9.62
Peter Hollins
723
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Gabriel Weinberg
907
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Shane Parrish
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $11.85
Albert Rutherford
133
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1 offer from $5.49

Popular Highlights in this book

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Our failures to update from interacting with reality spring primarily from three things: not having the right perspective or vantage point, ego-induced denial, and distance from the consequences of our decisions.
Highlighted by 7,664 Kindle readers
When understanding is separated from reality, we lose our powers. Understanding must constantly be tested against reality and updated accordingly.
Highlighted by 5,865 Kindle readers
The third flaw is distance. The further we are from the results of our decisions, the easier it is to keep our current views rather than update them.
Highlighted by 5,861 Kindle readers
The first flaw is perspective. We have a hard time seeing any system that we are in.
Highlighted by 5,837 Kindle readers
Understanding only becomes useful when we adjust our behavior and actions accordingly.
Highlighted by 5,657 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

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''I'm really glad this exists in the world and I can see that I will be recommending it often.'' --Matt Mullenweg, founder and CEO of Automattic --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

"I'm really glad this exists in the world and I can see that I will be recommending it often." — Matt Mullenweg, founder and CEO of Automattic --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07P79P8ST
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Latticework Publishing Inc. (October 9, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 9, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5651 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 197 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #59,565 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #43 in Cognitive Psychology (Kindle Store)
- #44 in Business Decision-Making
- #101 in Business Decision Making

Customer Reviews:
2,962 ratings

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Shane Parrish

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Shane Parrish is the founder, curator, and wisdom seeker behind Farnam Street (www.fs.blog) and the host of The Knowledge Project Podcast.

Farnam Street helps you master the best of what other people have already figured out. With more than 250,000 subscribers, consistently sold-out workshops, and over 10 million podcast downloads, Farnam Street and The Knowledge Project have become the go-to resource that CEOs, athletes, professional coaches, and entrepreneurs rely on to upgrade themselves.

Shane’s work has been featured in nearly every major publication, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Forbes.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

2,962 global ratings

5 star		64%
4 star		23%
3 star		10%
2 star		3%
1 star		1%

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Samuel LeBaron Abbott III

Top 5

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2022

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This is in the top ten books I’ve read. I’m planning to buy several of these to gift to close friends. If you’re intrigued by the notion of thinking better—more effectively, more decisively, more confidently—this book is an accessible treasure trove of practical information. If you’ve ever read Robert Greene and enjoyed it, this is written in a similar style without the diabolical tone and effect. Further, the design of it and reasonable price makes it an all around win. Just love it. Highly recommended! — from a guy who has a personal library of over a thousand books and reluctantly tells people I like to read when they ask what I do for fun.

3 people found this helpful

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Isaque

Great Book, worth reading..

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 18, 2022

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The book is great and it is worth pondering every single mental model he describes. You may already know some of them or even all of them but having it described and discussed before you sheds some lights on aspects of the model you may have ignored in your use of it. I was deeply enlightened by many of the book’s discussions. The use of stories of great men and women is well crafted in almost all discussions.

The only complaint I have is the naturalistic viewpoint that is preached in some parts of the book. I believe the author fails to apply the very thing he’s advocating for when he does that: a rational analysis of what is said. Take the Sagan example and do it by yourself, he throws one phrase from a scientist in the air as if the phrase was a scientific argument, which is clearly not. Note that the phrase in question is so damaging that it has been used many times to discredit important recent scientific discoveries.

Anyways, my 2 cents: focus on what the author do best and forget about his wandering into metaphysics.

One person found this helpful

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D. Stangler

very useful

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 16, 2022

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Straightforward and valuable in presenting the first round of mental models. Good examples to illustrate. Will be most useful with repeated readings.

One person found this helpful

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Mike L

good summary of different thinking models

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 20, 2022

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Quick read and straight to the point which I’m a fan of. The book goes over roughly 10 different thinking concepts and gives examples of each. It’s a bit short and lacking in some detail for the price you pay, but I felt I gained some knowledge in these areas, so still worth it to me. I plan to pickup another book that goes into these concepts in greater detail, but I think this one is a good start to see if you enjoy reading about this topic

One person found this helpful

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Fernando Castro

All considered, a good summary

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2019

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I won’t give 5 stars because what is a five star book? This was a very easy read for anyone who knows how to read and want to polish their thinking with a few tools. Unless you are an expert, it’s worth reading and keeping it handy. Where it could have been better is mostly when Shane writes examples. They are good, but I think half of them aren’t quite accurate or he is just speculating that someone used x or y model but he doesn’t really know. How about 5 examples that can contrast to one another; how about not showing them as a one mental model specific (as I’m sure all cases are a mix of several models) I guess it becomes the task of the reader to figure it out, but having listened to Shane before, I believe he could pull up better “case studies”. Also, we live in such complex interesting times; do we really need to talk about people who supposedly used these models 300 years ago? And not in our lifetime? I’m sure there is no malice in just writing about very old examples, it’s probably a Hanlin’s razor case! — FS / Shane is doing a great service putting this out there - but they can do much better with not a lot of effort. Thank you Shane.

22 people found this helpful

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Richard Llinares

Fascinating and useful.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 27, 2022

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I first came upon Farnham Street through their blog. This book, and the two that followed are just fascinating. I’ve found the concept of mental models intriguing and it’s clear they have valuable utility in developing a persons ability to think better. This is the most accessible of the three books and very useful. It’s one of the few books I won’t put away on my book shelf, but rather, keep handy for constant reading and study. I can’t recommend this more highly.

One person found this helpful

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José Vera Campello

Good but to simple

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 19, 2022

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The foundation is good, the will to explain how system artifacts affect us is good. But the execution is simplistic, the text is short and the content reads like a short story, amidst a recommendation brochure.

It's good but not very good.

One person found this helpful

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Abhishek Sharma

Assortment of some very important thinking frameworks.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 1, 2020

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This book is a consolidation of the wonderful mental models that Farnam Street has learned over the years from its highly distinguished guests. The cover image does a perfect TL;DR on what the book really is - it is an assortment of important thinking concepts (frameworks) that you want:
a) to be aware of, and
b) keep handy to apply
whenever you are thinking deeply about a problem or a life decision. It seems Shane Parrish has good motivations to assemble this because probably he is probably trying to teach all these models to his own kids.

Note, I use the word assemble (with intention) because it is certainly an assembly book. The book does
_not_ introduce some extensive new research or offer a brand new concept/model per se but rather is a nice consolidation of many important ideas in one single place -- the content is by no means author's original findings and they don't claim so either. Having said that, getting everything organized cohesively isn't easy at all, so kudos to them in my opinion. A clear read overall & definitely something to have in your bookshelf.

2 people found this helpful

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M. A. Myatt

A quick romp through some important tools for thinking with

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 18, 2020

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A quick romp through some important tools for thinking with. Only four stars because it is so quick. Some sections are superficial and some require knowledge of US popular culture and sports personalities but these are tools everyone should know about. I had the Kindle edition. It worked well but some "sidebars" were a few pages away from where they were initially referenced. I will be reading the next volume in the series.

9 people found this helpful

brianreadsbooks

A quick read overview of mental models

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 25, 2021

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This book is adapted from a series of blog posts, which makes it a good overview and quick read. Each chapter speaks to one mental model, describing it and then providing 2-3 examples from history. The only negative for me was that in a couple chapters I felt the examples were a bit of a stretch to support the theory he just defined. I didn’t quite believe it and he even acknowledges in one that he can’t truly know what led a historical figure to make a certain decision. Nothing in the book was brand new to me, but I liked the framing of each as mental models as I can now tie the concepts more neatly together when discussing with colleagues at work.

3 people found this helpful

Mr. B. Hosking

Improve you thinking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

If you are a reader of the Farnam street blog, much of the content will be familar but this is a great way to have it condensed in one book.

The book is short, focused and gets right down to the mental models. Some of the popular mental models covered are

The Map is not the territory
circle of competence
First principles thinking
Second-order thinking
probabilistic thinking
Inversion

Easy to read and will teach you loads

5 people found this helpful

Dr. Peter Meier

eklatante Fehler in den Details

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on June 3, 2022

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Es gibt Denkmodelle (EN: mental methods), die dem Denken, dem Denken über das Denken und der Folge | Beobachten - Wahrnehmen - Verstehen (oder auch nicht) - Beurteilen [ Beschreiben, Bemessen, Bewerten (oder auch nicht) ] - Entscheiden (oder auch nicht) - Handeln (oder auch nicht) | zugrunde liegen. Diese Denkmodelle sind Modelle; sie sind nicht die Realität. Sie sind allenfalls eine Reduktion der Realität oder (anders ausgedrückt) eine Abstraktion der Wirklichkeit. Sie sind keine Wahrheit. Das Werk (hier der Band 1 von 3 Bänden) der Autoren ist ein lobenswerter und interessanter Ansatz, diese Denkmodelle auszuwählen, zu ordnen und zu beschreiben. Ich hätte teilweise dieselben, teilweise andere Denkmodelle gewählt. Diese subjektive Auswahl ist nicht Teil meiner Bewertung. Die Präferenz für Modelle ist verschieden bei verschiedenen Personen.

Der Abschnitt zur Ungewissheit und zur Statistik in Band 1 „The Great Mental Models“ , Kapitel 06: „General Thinking Concepts – Probabilistic Thinking – What are the Chances?“ erregt bei mir erhebliche Zweifel, ob die Autoren verstehen, was sie geschrieben haben. Nach meinem Verständnis ist das Verständnis / Unverständnis der Autoren unverständlich.

Der Glockenkurve als Verteilungsfunktion des Auftretens eines bestimmten Sachverhalts hätte ein wenig Mathematik zur Standardabweichung und zum Mittelwert der Verteilung gutgetan. Ein Hinweis auf ihrem Entdecker (nicht: Erfinder) C. F. Gauß wäre angebracht gewesen. Diese Gauß-Funktion ist die am meisten als Druck abgebildete mathematische Funktion: Auf der 10 DM Banknote der Bundesrepublik bis zum Jahr 2000. Der Glockenkurve nach Gauß stellen die Autoren in Wort und Bild die „Long-Tail“ Kurve gegenüber. Durch das Fehlen mathematischer Beschreibung fehlt die genaue Darstellung der Unterschiede zwischen den zwei Kurven. Ob und wie die zwei Kurven bezüglich ihres Flächenintegrals normiert sind, ist unklar. Die zugehörige Abbildung bezeichnet die zwei gezeigten Kurven nicht. Welches die Glockenkurve und welches die „Long-Tail Kurve ist, ist nicht zu erkennen. Ich nutze dieses Kapitel in der Lehre (Hochschule, MBA Course: „Statistics for Risk Assessment“) unter der Kategorie „gut gemeint“, „nicht verstanden“, „schlecht umgesetzt“. Mehr als 2 Punkte sind dafür wegen dieser beispielhaften Schwäche nicht drin!

12 people found this helpful

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Sam Allen

Excellent introduction to mental models

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 15, 2021

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Some great thought experiments, examples and quotes in here. A journey through some common logical fallacies and tools to help you avoid them, and an excellent selection of quotes and anecdotes to demonstrate them. A quick read well worth your time.

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